Cyprus peace process

It is as if a Cyprus settlement is completed and time has come to sell it to the people - and, of course, to the global sponsors who hopefully will finance its implementation.

The United Nations senior official on Cyprus has expressed he was more ?optimistic and hopeful? for ongoing talks between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders compared to previous negotiations between the two parties. 

A senior United Nations official for Cyprus held meetings in Ankara with Turkish officials on Aug. 13 amid cautious optimism about a possible deal to reunify the island.

The leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community, Mustafa Akinci expressed his optimism that a solution to the Cypriot problem could be reached within the next months. Akinci posted a tweet stressing that the this (Cypriot talks) was a negotiating process which had been ongoing from 1968, adding that he did not have a magic wand.

Should Turkish Cypriots try to defend their own interests even if that amounts to hurting Turkey's interests? Or should they defend Turkish interests even if that requires their own interests be sacrificed? This is not an egg and chicken story, but a very serious issue that deserves a very serious evaluation. The question is of course also related to who the Turkish Cypriots are.

I know quite a number of Turkish elites who, frustrated with developments in Turkey, decided to settle in Turkish Cyprus over the course of the last decade. 

Following the failure of the 2004 Annan plan, I had found this choice a bit odd, as pessimism reigned over Turkish Cyprus. 

Turkey is displaying a largely hands-off attitude to the current Cyprus negotiations, according to Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Emine Çolak. Turkey's stance at the moment is devoid of any manipulation or interference, she says Ankara is allowing the two sides in the Cyprus dispute to pursue negotiations to unify the island in peace, according to the north's foreign minister.

Defying all skeptics, pulling down old taboos one after the other and with an unaccustomed absence of leaks and public mudslinging, the Cyprus talks appear to be gearing up to yet another twin referenda in March-April 2016.

Perhaps time has come to try to convince the two peoples of Cyprus that what the two leaders and negotiating teams have been discussing ?discreetly?

U.N. Security Council backing for the reunification of Cyprus is ?encouraging,? though no timetable is in the cards, the United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus said July 22.